Tin

50Sn118.69

Tin is used in organ pipes.

Properties

Symbol

Name

Atomic
Number

Atomic
Weight

Group
Number

Sn

Tin

50

118.69

14

Description

Standard State: solid at 298 KColor: Silver lustrous gray

Known to the ancients. Tin is found chiefly in cassiterite. Most of the
world's supply comes from Malaya, Boliva, Indonesia, Zaire, Thailand, and Nigeria.
The U.S. produces almost none, although occurrences have been found in Alaska and
California.

Tin is obtained by reducing the ore with coal in a reverberatory furnace.
Ordinary tin is composed of nine stable isotopes.

Due to the breaking of the crystals in tin, a "tin cry" is heard when a bar
is bent.

Most window glass is now made by floating molten glass on molten tin to produce a flat
surface.

Of recent interests is a crystalline tin-niobium alloy that is superconductive
at very low temperatures. This promises to be important in the construction of
super-conductive magnets generate field strengths but use practically no power.